Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical interferometric method for gaining structure information of an object. The object is disposed in a measurement arm of an interferometer and illuminated with a measuring light, measuring light returned from the object is superimposed with a reference light having traversed a reference arm of the interferometer such that the superimposed portions of light may interfere with each other. Intensities of the interfering light are detected. Measuring light returning from different portions of the object experiences different phase differences relative to the reference light, resulting in different detected light intensities after superposition with the reference light. It is possible to obtain information relating to structures of the object by analyzing interference patterns obtained by such measurements.
OCT is particularly suitable to obtain high resolution information of tissue volumes of the human eye.
Different types of OCT apparatuses have been developed for imaging of the anterior portions of the eye and of the posterior portions of the eye.
Surgical microscopes are used to provide images of an eye to a surgeon. The images are obtained by optically imaging extended portions of the eye via oculars such that the surgeon may look into the oculars to perceive the images, or the extended portions of the eye are optically imaged onto a camera having an array of pixels, and light intensities detected by the pixels are displayed on a display, such as a monitor or a head mounted display carried by the surgeon. Optical interference is not involved in such imaging. Surgical microscopes are often embodied as stereoscopic microscopes providing different views of the object to the left and right eyes of the surgeon such that the object is perceived as having a three dimensional structure.
It has been found desirable to provide OCT systems having an extended applicability and to provide imaging systems including a microscopy system and an OCT system.